These are the ramblings of a self-described wheat, grain and gluten-free “gourmet girl” that loves to cook and eat good food. I love creating and sharing recipes and photographing “beautiful food”. In July 2012, I eliminated wheat, grains and added sugar from my diet and rediscovered real, whole fresh foods again and effortlessly lost 65+ pounds. Join me in my wheat, grain and gluten-free journey. See how easy it is to enjoy grain free gourmet, one meal at a time! Welcome to my blog. Enjoy!

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Sunday, September 1, 2013

Happy Sunday & Happy 1st Day of September, too! We awoke to a sunny, hot and extremely humid day here today...but hubby and I were troopers and still went for our walk before breakfast this morning. I am so excited to share the recipe for my first EVER "frozen treat pops" with you. After making these awesome Lemon-Coconut-Blueberry Frozen Greek Yogurt Pops, I might just have to retire my ice cream maker to the garage for a bit! As some of that regularly follow me may already know...I have not exactly been overjoyed at my attempts at making ice cream! While it's turned out "alright"...it was never anything good enough where I'd say..."hey, I'd like to do that again" or make me want to share my recipe with anyone...I'm kind of picky (if you haven't already figured that out). So, on a whim, a couple weeks ago, I ordered some cute ice pop molds to see if I might like using those better. I bought bright yellow molds that hold about 1/2 cup of "ice cream or frozen yogurt" each....and they are called "Groovy Ice Pop Molds"...and they definitely live up to their name...they worked beautifully and produced some extremely "groovy pops"! LOL But...even more groovy than the pop molds was my recipe for what I put in them! My top three favorite "summer flavors" have to be, hands down, lemon, coconut and blueberry...and I was torn between which flavor to go with...so I settled the debate going on in my head and went with ALL of them! :-) I made Lemon-Coconut-Blueberry Frozen Greek Yogurt Pops and not only are they beautiful (and a mouthful to say), but they are absolutely delicious! The recipe turned out so good, I could drink the stuff and not even worry about freezing it!!! There are not a lot of ingredients in them and I can't tell you how much easier (and fun) they were to make than ice cream. I used Greek Gods full fat yogurt, Native Forest Unsweetened Coconut Milk (also full fat), Swerve confectioners and NuNaturals stevia, plus lemon zest and fresh blueberries. The reason why I prefer using Greek Gods full fat yogurt for these is because I find it to be the least tart of all the brands of Greek yogurt I have tried, but if you prefer a different brand...then definitely go with that. I used Swerve confectioners version of sweetener because it blends in nicely and you won't get any grittiness that you sometimes can get with granular erythritol based sweeteners...especially if what you are making gets refrigerated or frozen, which exacerbates that. If you don't have the powdered confectioners type of Swerve or other erythritol based sweetener, no worries...you just pop it into a coffee grinder or Magic Bullet type of small blender and give it a whiz..."voila"...you have a powdery confectioners style sweetener. I add the NuNaturals stevia drops to boost and more fine tune the sweetness because I can add it a little at a time -- 7 drops of it equals approximately 1 teaspoon of sugar in sweetness. I use NuNaturals stevia exclusively because it doesn't have the bitterness and icky taste found in so many other brands of stevia I've tried before...but, you can use whatever kind you prefer. You will see that I also added 1 teaspoon of coconut extract to my coconut milk mixture -- I did that to further boost the coconut flavor so I could distinctly taste all 3 of my favorite summer flavors...lemon, coconut and blueberry! I snapped a few photos (alright, I lied)...I snapped a LOT of photos of my groovy bars for you to see...they have been my best photo subjects so far...can you tell I REALLY liked these bars? LOL Oh...I also included the recipe for you below, as well! Enjoy and happy last blast of summer to all! P.S.-- Don't forget to enter my Swerve Giveaway for your chance to win a Weber grill and some FREE Swerve (courtesy of Swerve). Details are below!

Not too shabby for my first ice pops, huh?

I poured the extra 1 cup left into little "Dixie cups" and froze them -- you don't have to have special molds to enjoy these (they are just prettier and more fun to eat that way). I had enough left to make 4 of these little cups...notice there are 2 missing? ;-)

The kind folks at Swerve recently contacted me and have allowed me to offer Gourmet Girl Cooks' followers a chance to win an exciting "Celebration to Summer's End Giveaway"! One lucky follower will win a: Weber 22.5” Silver One-Touch, Kettle Grill AND a Three-Pack of Swerve (see below). As most of you that follow me already know, I have been using Swerve for almost a year now and it is my favorite "zero calorie" natural sweetener to bake with. It tastes great and measures cup-for-cup just like sugar, which makes it super easy to substitute in recipes...no calculations involved! It contains no artificial ingredients and comes in both granular and confectioners (powdered) versions. With the upcoming Labor Day weekend ahead, I will be posting some delicious "end of summer" recipes using Swerve...so stay tuned! Ready, set....GO! Begin entering now!

P.S.-- if you are already a Swerve lover like I am, and your supply is getting low...Swerve is currently running a special through Tuesday, September 3rd, for $9.99 each (for a 16-oz bag) or you can grab 6 packs of Swerve for $49.98 ($8.33/each + free shipping). You can click here to grab this special ---> Swerve

HOW TO ENTER:
The winning contestant will be chosen at random (must be a U.S. resident). To enter a chance to win, all you need to do is: Leave a comment here on my blog and include the words "Swerve BBQ Contest" (1 entry per person per day). Contest ends Friday, September 6, 2013 at Midnight EDT. The winner will have 24 hours after being announced to contact Gourmet Girl Cooks (by email at GourmetGirlCooksBlog @ gmail.com) with their shipping address. If no response is received in 24 hours, a new winner will be selected.

*The product provided in this giveaway is contributed by and will be sent directly to the winner by Swerve.

26 comments:

Chris
said...

Oh my......this looks like an excellent treat. Thanks for kind words yesterday. I too wish I had learned this earlier.....but glad I did now. Your recipes have helped inspire us along!Still would love to win Swerve BBQ Contest!

eastwood2007 -- too funny about you just buying the same molds...great minds think alike..LOL :-)

Thanks, Patricia!

Thanks, Maria! Good luck on the contest!

Thanks, Luana! The 3 flavors really did work well together Good luck on the contest!

Thanks, Jackie! Good luck on the contest!

Thanks, CyberSis! These really turned out great. My youngest son who has the massive sweet tooth loved them -- he said...Mom these are sweet, are you sure you can eat them? LOL I purposely made them sweet and "treat-like" so it would appeal to even the non-WBers, and it did successfully! Before we ate them this evening, I put it out on the counter for about 15 minutes so it wouldn't be rock hard -- the consistency was perfect and the flavors were great. Good luck in the contest! :-)

GG, only you can come up with a combination like that, intriguing and I m sure very tasty, I will make it for my small grand kids!Thank you!I would love to win the BBQ contest! Enjoy your day! Barbara.

I've got a set of pop molds that I adore. But the set of 4 hold less than 1c total of whatever mixture I want to use. I've seen these molds that you have on a few other blogs... I just might "need" a new set - ha ha. Yes, your first batch of pops are lovely!

Please enter me again in the Swerve BBQ Contest. Keeping my fingers crossed to finally get to try Swerve!

We had these today and were they ever YUMMY! And they even passed the Hubby Test ... with flying colors! I don't have groovy ice pop molds (yet) so while looking around the kitchen for something to substitute, I came across Grandma's mini aspic molds, just like these (the swirled ones on the right):

Thanks Deanna -- glad you liked the Eggplant Lasagna -- I've been lucky to find fresh eggplant when I've made it. The older ones can get bitter. Good Luck! :-)

Hi Anonymous! Please make sure you give me a name or way to announce you and identify you if you win! :-)

Good Luck, SierraDeb! :-)

Thanks, Barbara -- hope the grand kids like them! Wait until you see the dessert I made tonight -- with hazelnuts -- I remember you said you love hazelnuts, too! Also, check out how nicely I got the skins to come off after roasting them. Good Luck! :-)

Hi Becky! Thanks. Even if you don't have molds, you can use little dixie type cups (you would just need to get sticks). The extra I put in the little cups was nice to pull out a "little treat" -- I sat in on the counter for about 15 mins or so and it was perfect. Good Luck! :-)

Hi CyberSis! Wow...passing the hubby test is always a good thing!!! Checked out your little aspic molds -- how cute -- like little mini bundt pans. If they unmolded well in those, you may not even need to get pop molds. Your molds are pretty cute and a bit fancier looking! So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Good Luck! :-)

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my blog! I look forward to sharing my love of food, cooking and photography with you as well as some of my favorite recipes and food finds. Cooking is a passion and I love experimenting in the kitchen. I rarely follow a recipe exactly and usually feel the need to add a "tweak or two" to make it my own. I hope you get an idea or two while you are here. Cooking doesn't have to be complicated and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to be a good cook. There are so many ways to make a quick and delicious meal without having to run through the drive-thru. You can "have it your way" every day AT HOME! Enjoy!

*Note: Effective July 10, 2012, all recipes (except for an occasional one made for others) are completely grain free, wheat free, gluten free with no added sugar and can be found below in the list of recipes under "Wheat/Grain/Gluten Free Recipes". Enjoy!

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